bill mckibben

Bill McKibben, the author of 20 books, as well as the founder of 350.org, is one of the most famous climate activists in America. In this episode, he discusses his latest book, The Flag, The Cross, and The Station Wagon, patriotism, why he wants “energy from heaven instead of energy from hell,” why he doesn’t support the construction of new nuclear plants (“nuclear is slow and expensive”), and why climate change is the “first truly time-limited problem we’ve come up against.” (Recorded June 29, 2023.) 

 Writer and environmentalist Bill McKibben has been pushing for climate solutions for decades. Now in his 60s, Bill’s working to organize people aged 60 and older with his new group called Third Act, to leave behind a better world for their loved ones.

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Jeff Gibbs is the director of Planet of the Humans, a feature-length documentary released in 2019 which generated controversy because of its full-throated criticism of alternative energy, and even led some academics --  including Michael Mann. Leah Stokes, and Mark Jacobson -- to demand that Michael Moore, the executive director of the film, issue an apology. In this episode, Gibbs talks about what has happened since the film was released, why “green energy is delusional energy,” why he believes we are “in denial that we are reaching” the limits of the planet to sustain so many humans, and why he sees climate activist Bill McKibben as the “environmental Jesus.” (Recorded on January 26, 2023)

On April 22, 1970, 20 million people across the U.S. marched, attended speeches and sat in teach-ins, marking the first Earth Day, and spurring on the enactment of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the founding of the EPA, all of which occurred later that year. Then and now, activism has been critical to enacting environmental and climate policy, and in shifting attitudes of the general public to the urgency of mitigating climate change, but why is activism so important, and how can it be done effectively?

Climate Now sat down with Bill McKibben, author, journalist and environmental activist who has led protest movements against development of the Keystone Pipeline Project (which aimed to pipe oil from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada to Nebraska where it could link with other pipelines heading to the refineries of Texas), and for the global divestment from fossil fuels (currently amounting to $40 trillion of lost capital for fossil fuel companies, and counting). Bill joined us to discuss why activism is so important to enacting climate policy, how the biggest movements come together, and the work that needs to be done next.

Key Questions:

1. What is the role of activism in the fight against climate change?
2. What are the key ingredients to building a successful protest movement?
3. What lessons have can be taken from prior activist campaigns, such as against the Keystone Pipeline and for fossil fuel divestment, that inform the next steps in the climate movement?

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Over a decade ago Lexington adopted a stretch energy code for buildings. Then about 20% better than the existing code, this stretch code was adopted statewide and eventually in 47 other states. Now Lexington has built several all electric buildings and is looking to do more, including ban new fossil fuel infrastructure. We interview Lexington Select Board Member Mark Sandeen about his and Lexington's years of leadership and learn how a small town can have a big impact.

Resources

• Lexington’s Sustainable Action Plan
• Lexington’s Getting to Net Zero roadmap
• Sustainable Lexington Committee
• WBUR story on Lexington's efforts to ban fossil fuel infrastructure

Sponsored by Tierra Farm | Music by Simon Frishkoff

In this episode, our Executive Director Martin Ping had the chance to sit down with environmental activist Bill McKibben to talk about the daunting crisis of climate change and the important work of citizenship in facing this challenge. Bill's 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and he’s gone on to write a dozen more books. A founder of 350.org, Bill McKibben spearheaded the resistance to the Keystone Pipeline, and launched the fast-growing fossil fuel divestment movement. 

2:20  What inspired you to write End of Nature?

4:20  I knew the minute I started learning about it [climate change] in the 1980s, that this was, trouble with capital T… and so beginning a long time ago, some kind of mix of journalism and activism, became my life.

4:53 Now we've built these large movements and they're at the point of really being able to challenge finally, the political and economic power of the fossil fuel industry. 

5:50 So there are days when my answer to this question has nothing to with whether we’re going to win or not. It’s simply how much trouble can I cause the bad guys today, that has to be enough reason for getting out of bed and doing the work… 

6:30  Dr. King used to say at the end of his talks, ‘the arc of the moral universe is long and it bends toward justice.’ Which I think translates to, this may take a while, but we’re going to win. The arc of the physical universe is short and it appears to bend toward heat, and unless we get it solved really soon, we will not get it solved. 

7:04 Nobody has a plan for refreezing the Arctic now that it's mostly melted. So that makes it daunting, but it makes it all the more beautiful that people are willing to join in this fight.

7:41  We think agriculture is about 18% of emissions around the world…, the good news, although it's, you know, the science is still tentative in a lot of ways, and we don't really understand all of it are the indications that regenerative agriculture could pull a lot of carbon out of the air and that treating soils correctly, would be very, very helpful. 

9:30 We're past the point where we can make the math work one vegan dinner at a time, one Prius at a time. And so I keep saying to people, and I think the most important thing an individual can do is be a little less of an individual and join together with others in movements that are actually big enough to make political and economic change, because that's what has to happen if we make we're going to make the math work.

11:20 The work of citizenship largely gets done after hours and on weekends. And it’s crucial to making the world work.

11:40 The people that move me most watching this are young people…Everybody knows Greta Thunberg and everybody should...but the really good news is there are 10,000 Greta Thun

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In what could be the most important Muse Mentors episode ever, author and climate activist  Bill McKibben (who wrote The End of Nature one of the first books on global warming for the general public) talks about his childhood, teen-aged years as a journalist; and, before he even graduated from Harvard, an invitation from the late great editor  William Shawn to write for  The New Yorker Magazine. McKibben also discusses the impact the arts has in furthering the climate change movement, reflecting on  his appearances on The Colbert Report, David Attenborough's recent magnum opus film "A Life on Our Planet", and a celebration of Richard Power's cri de coeur novel The Overstory. Here's a chance to hear Bill's origin story, and to discover how he has become a muse and mentor the world over!

Global crises cause big changes and reveal deep structural weaknesses. As drastic measures are taken across the world to stop the spread of COVID-19,  what are the short, medium and long term implications for our society, our economy, geopolitics - and us as individuals?

In this special interview series from the RSA, its chief executive, Matthew Taylor, talks to a range of practitioners - from scholars to business leaders, politicians to journalists - to assess the scale of the response and consider how we build effective bridges to our new future. 

Bill McKibben is an environmentalist and author of Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?

Produced by Craig Templeton Smith

In this time of global change, strong communities and initiatives that bring people together are more invaluable than ever before. The RSA Fellowship is a global network of problem solvers. We invite you to join our community today to stay connected, inspired and motivated in the months ahead. You can learn more about the Fellowship or start an application by clicking  here. 

Our guest this episode is author, environmentalist and activist Bill McKibben, whose 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change. He is also a founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement, which has organized 20,000 rallies around the world. A former staff writer for The New Yorker, McKibben writes frequently for a variety of publications around the world, including The New York Review of Books, National Geographic and Rolling Stone. He is the author of more than a dozen books; his latest, published in April, is Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?

McKibben joined John Merino for an in-studio conversation shortly after he delivered his Aug. 15 lecture in the Chautauqua Amphitheater as part of a week themed “Shifting Global Power.”

Three decades ago, writer Bill McKibben gave a warning about impacts from global warming in his book The End of Nature. Since then, little has been done to tackle the problem, which is growing. Weather events are worsening and communities are suffering from stronger storms, heat waves, wildfires, and more. “The world is now in violent and chaotic flux,” he says. To address this emergency, he suggests transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy and hitting the streets. His organization 350.org has held rallies around the world to bring attention to the climate crisis. With the Global Climate Strike just around the corner (September 20), McKibben gives a call to arms to protect our planet and humanity itself. The views and opinions of the podcast guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Aspen Institute.

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